Jahangir elected Chandpur chamber president

---

Jahangir Alam Akand Selim has been elected president of Chandpur Chamber of Commerce for the two years term. He was elected by the members of the chamber recently. Mr Jahangir is the founder president of the chamber and the director of apex business body FBCCI and Basic Bank Limited. - Statement 5 Rising coal costs to hit Indian power projects MUMBAI, Dec 20: The rising cost of imported coal, coupled with a weakening rupee, could force some Indian power projects to default on their debt obligations, ratings agency Fitch said Tuesday. Fitch estimated that the average cost of generation could rise to 4.41 rupees (8 cents) per kilowatt hour for projects relying entirely on imported coal, from the current average of 2.29 rupees, if current trends continue. Coal accounts for 55 per cent of India's power generation capacity of 182,344 megawatts. But while the country holds 10 per cent of the world's coal reserves, power companies often struggle to access local supplies due to environmental and land acquisition delays, forcing expensive imports. The higher costs could put massive pressure on plants that cannot pass on higher fuel costs to customers, and in some cases this could render projects unviable, the ratings agency said. "Financial margins of power projects will also come under severe pressure in the absence of a significant tariff revision or injection of additional sponsor equity," Venkataraman Rajaraman, director at Fitch's Global Infrastructure group, said in a statement accompanying a report on the industry. Most new Indian power projects are dependent on imported coal and have seen their costs jump over the past year. - Reuters